power

Wander the aisles at your local food bank, and if there's jams or jellies it's likely the variety begins and ends with "grape." Chutneys? Perhaps, if there's an Indian or Southeast Asian food manufacturer nearby, and they've sent their overstock. Not so in Philomath, Oregon. Try this: local kiwi...

Hot off its success buying up everyone's unused gold, one of Americas most recognized gold buyers, Cash for Gold USA, is now ready to buy your diamonds. The new company, Cash for Diamonds USA, aims to offer you top dollar for your precious stones, and will even pay you for the gold setting if...

While my first reaction to power company-sponsored efficiency initiatives is always, isn't there an inherent conflict of interest here? I still admire what Xcel is doing in Boulder, Colorado. The utility company is investing $100 million upgrading Boulder's power infrastructure, a project they're...

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently released a study regarding the power usage of consoles. During the course of the study it found that gamers who leave their consoles powered on all the time spend more than $100 a year to leave their game console idle. At first glance this...

The mail carrier knows: when the envelopes from the local utilities start changing color, it's bad news. Most gas and power companies use yellow for warning, pink for impending shut-off. In an NPR interview, Andrea the mail carrier (who is not yet a figure in John McCain's campaign) talked about...

Last month my colleague Carol Vinznat wrote a great article which helped you figure out just how much your appliances were costing you just because they are plugged in, using several different power monitoring tools. The good news is that even if you haven't used one of these personal power meters...

It's hard to figure out how to save energy in your home if you don't know how much you're using and where. That's why those who are serious about saving money or electricity are turning to electricity meters. Formerly the province of serious electronics geeks with $1,200 to blow on a big, elaborate...

This video has been around for a while but Rob Gruhl does such an excellent job at explaining how to purchase a car that it is well worth your time even if you aren't in the market just yet. Even though the focus of the talk is on how to buy a new car, you can easily adapt most of this advice to...

Late last year we purchased a used Chevy Equinox which was ultimately financed through a local credit union. We have been members of another local credit union for several years, my wife even longer if you count her years as a "kid saver'. We went with the other credit union because it had a better...